When you read the title of this blog post, I’m sure you start to wonder what the heck I’m talking about and why my word for 2018 is “no”. The reason is simple: I’m a recovering people pleaser. I’m recovering from saying “yes” one too many times and then hating myself later on for agreeing to that event, that dinner, that partnership, that trip, etc. Over the past couple of years, I’ve learned more about myself that I ever knew before, and one of the things that has been challenging for me to overcome is learning how to say “no thanks” to people or things that I don’t necessarily want or need in my life at this time. But I’ve learned how to get past this challenge and how to politely decline or step away from things in life that are not beneficial to my health, happiness and well being … And boy has it been one of the most freeing feelings ever!

Teej and I recently took a trip to the beautiful Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia with some of our closest friends. We have been going here for a few years now because we think it is the best place to go for skiing / snowboarding on the East Coast, and it includes the cutest, snowy village on top of the mountain.

With many open trails for skiers / snowboarders of all levels, this is the primary place to go with a large group of friends in the winter months. Even if someone in your crew isn’t into all the snow activities, there are still lots of shops, restaurants and a brewery to keep everyone in your group entertained!

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day and the month of love, I wanted to share with you all what the big L-word means to me. I’ve always loved love – even during my single days – and over the years, I’ve learned that we all have different meanings to this word at different stages of our lives. Ultimately, it’s something that we feel and we try our best to express those feelings in words time and time again. I’ve also learned that true love is something so strong that words may not be able to accurately define. However, with that said, I am confident that I’ve learned so much more about the meaning (or the formula) of love ever since I started dating my husband, so I can’t wait to share a little more about that with you all today!

Along with that, TJ and I recently got the opportunity to work with JamesAllen.com, and it was such a neat experience that I’ve been dying to share with you all! This is one of the largest online retailers for diamonds, gemstones and engagement rings. With us being at the age where ALL of our friends are getting engaged and married (and since many of my readers are around this same age as well), I thought it would be helpful for us to try out their Design Your Own Ring experience and share our thoughts!

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, and let’s face it ladies … sometimes our men need a little help when it comes to finding us the perfect gift, right? 😉 I’m here to help – send him over here to LNL or just pop the gift ideas below into his head! TJ and I buy Valentine’s gifts for each other every year, and I hardly ever know what to tell him that I want when he asks, so it’s usually just a surprise. However, I’ve had my fair share of times where I will send links to things I like to his inbox or have my mom or sister drop the hint. I mean, don’t lie, we ALL do it y’all!

Something was brought to my attention a couple of days ago, regarding my career as an influencer. To keep it short & to the point, this person was talking to someone who I am very close to, mocking my “weird” career choice and doubting that I will ever make it or be successful in this industry … Everyone is completely entitled to their own opinions of course! But sister, I’d like to thank you because you’ve just bursted my tiny spark into a mighty flame.

Alright, friends – blogging 101 is back in session! I was so pumped to see the positive feedback from my first post in this series and can’t wait to dive into more detail with y’all. Please be sure to let me know if you have any questions at all or if I left off something that you would like for me to include in the future Blogging 101 posts. (You can see what all I plan on covering here.)

By now – after reading Part 1: Finding Your Niche & Knowing Your Audience – you should be clear in the direction that you want to take your blog and know who your target audience will be.

Part 2 is all about the back-end, technical ‘stuff’, which we’ll be talking about today, and trust me, I know it can be super overwhelming. Thankfully my sweet hubby, TJ, offered to come on to LNL as a guest today to help me explain all of this in a clear, easy-to-understand manner.

A couple weeks ago on my Instagram story, I had a song playing in the background, and I received over 50 messages asking for the title & artist of that song. I figured I would do a poll to see if you all would actually be interested if I shared my current playlist with y’all, and over 95% answered ‘YES’. So, here we are!

Today, I’m sharing my Winter Playlist, which includes lots of chill tunes, (some newbies – lots of oldies) and all around just a huge mix of what I’ve been listening to lately. I tend to listen to many different genres, slow songs & fast songs, sad music & happy music all at one time, so I hope y’all like a good mix! I’m sure you’ll be able to easily identify which artists are my favorites since I’ve included lots of their music. 🙂

Basketball season is in full swing, and my Vols are doing really well so far! The Lady Vols are undefeated with a 14-0 record. They started their SEC schedule last week with a win over Auburn, and they are currently #7 in the nation! The men’s team has gotten off to a good start as well and a win against Kentucky on Rocky Top tomorrow will be huge as they kick off their SEC schedule. I’m pumped!

Not only am I a die hard UT football fan (which you all got to see a lot of this past fall), but I’m also a big Tennessee basketball fan – if you can’t already tell. Fun fact: My sweet Papaw played basketball for the University of Tennessee back when he was in school, so I always love hearing his stories from that time in his life! Another fun story — when I was cheering at UT, I became friends with a lot of the Lady Vol players. They were always so kind, really great students & absolutely hilarious to be around. I remember at every away game that we traveled with the Lady Vols, the coaches and players would always personally thank us for coming to cheer them on. They’re a really great bunch to be around! Unfortunately, I wasn’t cheering at UT when the amazing Pat Summitt was still coaching, but I was fortunate enough to be able to meet her and hear some great lessons from her before she passed away. She is and always will be a true legend at the University of Tennessee!

Happy New Year! I can’t believe 2017 has already come and gone. I hope each of you had a great year full of love, health and happiness, and I hope 2018 tops it!

One of my biggest goals for 2017 was to take my blog full time and become a successful businesswoman in the fashion and blogging industries. This was somewhat a challenge because that meant that I had to grow my blog to the point of where it could be financially stable enough for me to leave my 9 to 5 corporate job. The transition was something I tiptoed around (for months), but after lots of prayer and a huge leap of faith, here we are — I’m finally living out my dream in my LNL world! (all thanks to you guys!!) 2017 was definitely a year of transition and growth, yet ultimately a huge step in the right direction for my career path. (PTL!) I’m SO grateful for this, however, I do want to be as real & transparent with y’all as I can right now because it wasn’t all unicorns & butterflies.